Putting Out the Epidemic: Factors Affecting Ratification Speed of the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Open Access

Ramsey, Spencer Dean (2012)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/7s75dd25n?locale=en
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Abstract

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is a treaty created under the auspices of the
World Health Organization to combat the growing tobacco epidemic. The treaty was opened for
ratification in June, 2003, and as of March, 2012, 174 states have ratified the treaty. In this study,
world-polity and world-systems theories are used to attempt to explain the speed of ratification of the
WHO FCTC. World-polity theory predicts that states which are more integrated into world culture will
be likely to ratify the treaty sooner than states that are not as integrated. World-systems theory holds
that core countries, especially those with tobacco companies, will not ratify the treaty as quickly as the
periphery because it goes against their economic interests. The linear-regression analysis shows that no
single variable or group of variables significantly affects the ratification speed of the treaty. However,
cross-tabulations demonstrate that states with more INGO memberships were likely to ratify the treaty
sooner than others, and that core countries were likely to ratify the treaty sooner than others. These
findings support explanations of the ratification speed from both world-systems and world-polity
perspectives. The finding that core countries were likely to ratify the treaty sooner indicates that the
tobacco companies' focus has shifted to exploiting the periphery rather than the core. This relationship
results from the prevalence of stronger regulation in core states, which makes it easier for the tobacco
companies to influence peripheral states. The finding that states with more INGO memberships were
likely to ratify the treaty sooner shows that states that are more integrated into world culture adopt its
principles faster than states which are not as integrated.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Introduction 1
History 2
Growing Epidemic 2
WHO FCTC 4
Theories 5
World-Polity Theory 5
World-Systems Theory 12
Hypotheses 14
Research Methods 15
Dependent Variables 15
Independent Variables 18
Control Variables 21
Data Analysis 23
Linear Regression 24
Grouping the Variables 24
Results 27
Linear Regression 27
Bivariate Correlations 29
Cross-Tab Tables 30
Discussion 34
World-Polity Theory 34
World-Systems Theory 36
Conclusion 38
References 46

List of Tables
Table 1: Basic Statistics for Variables Used in Analysis 23
Table 2: Groupings of World-Systems Variables for Cross-Tabulations 25
Table 3: Groupings of World-Polity Variables for Cross-tabulations 26
Table 4: Example of Predicted Results of World-Systems Theory 26
Table 5: Example of Predicted Results of World-Polity Theory 26
Table 6: Linear Regression Models of Factors Related to Speed of Ratification of the FCTC 28
Table 7: Correlations Between Dependent, Independent, and Control Variables 29
Table 8: World-system position related to Ratification Groups 32
Table 9: INGO Memberships related to Ratification Groupings 32
Table 10: Farm Production related to Ratification Groupings 32
Table 11: INGO Membership related to World-system position 33
Appendix 1: List of States by Ratification Date and Groupings 41

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